If a software error corrupts a database, or if erroneous data updates the database, a database administrator may restore the database to a previous uncorrupted state that does not include the corrupted or erroneous data. A backup application executes a backup operation either occasionally or continuously to enable this restoration, storing a copy of each desired database state (the values of its data and these values' embedding in the database's data structures) within dedicated backup files. When the database administrator decides to return the database to a previous state, the database administrator specifies the desired previous state by identifying a desired point in time when the database was in this state, and instructs the backup application to execute a restore operation to restore a copy of the corresponding backup files for that state to the database.
A snapshot is the capture of the state of a computer system object, such as a database, at a specific moment in time. A backup application may store snapshots on a storage array, which is a disk storage system which contains multiple disk drives. Unlike a disk enclosure, a storage array has cache memory and advanced functionality, such as virtualization and Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID). An enterprise may have a backup administrator to manage a backup application to create snapshots of computer system objects, use multiple storage arrays to store snapshots of computer system objects, and have multiple storage administrators managing the multiple storage arrays.